Peace be with You

The stockings and gifts are opened, Christmas brunch has been eaten, the cats are in a catnip coma, and the prime rib is coming to room temperature.

Now I can sit at my computer for a few minutes, listening to Andy Williams' Christmas album, and just reflect. As I've already mentioned, it's been a tough year. A year of weariness and emotional upheaval and uncertainty. Have you ever experienced that feeling of being always off-balance? Of never knowing where you're going to land and whether there's safe harbor? That's been me, this last year.

But sitting here, musing on Christmas day, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for this one last Christmas with my family the way it's always been. Next year will be different. I'm going to be in a home of my own, and likely my sister will either join me or she'll get a place of her own.

I'm reminded of Virginia Woolf, in a way. I'm a single woman with a successful job. If I'm going to make anything of my writing and of my faith, then I need a room, or in this case a home, of my own. All the uncertainty of the past year fades under that reality. My fear of change, of altering the traditional, has actually held me back in moving to the next level of my life. It's not so much about marriage and children, but growing into myself, becoming the woman I am meant to be.

Excitement flutters in me now when I think of having my own space. There's no room left for fear, only exultation that my time is coming. The Lord has opened many doors in my life before, and here is another one that it is nearly time to walk through.

Blessings to you all and Merry Christmas!

Read More

Four Things Tag

I randomly found this tag on Thrifty Bibliophile, and thought it sounded like fun. I don't mind doing tags every once in awhile, especially if they don't require me to spend a whole lot of time on them. Why am I doing it Christmas Eve? Because we're pretty much all set for Christmas, which is awesome! 
Four Jobs I've Had

1. Library Shelving Page
2. Library Circulation Assistant
3. Data Entry Associate
4. Data Entry Specialist

Four Things I Don't Eat

1. Stuffed Bellpeppers (ewww on so many levels particularly with the hamburger meat)
2. Red Chili (Dennison's is the only type I can stomach)
3. White Chocolate (bleh)
4. Those weird little baby octopus (YUCK!)

Four Places I've Lived

1. California
2. Oregon (3 different homes)
3. Colorado (3 different homes)

Four of My Favorite Foods

1. Sushi (yep, the real kind of sushi with the raw fish and everything, so yummy!)
2. Noosa Yogurt
3. European breakfast buffet with smoked salmon, tomatoes, rye toast, etc.
4. A really excellent Chicken Caesar Salad

Four Movies I've Watched More than Once

1. The Apartment with Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray.
2. The Lord of the Rings
3. Rogue One
4. Thor: Ragnarok

Four TV Shows I Watch

1. Gotham
2. Once Upon a Time
3. Stranger Things (it sorta counts)
4. Trollhunters (another Netflix original)

Four Things I'm Looking Forward to This Year

1. Renting an apartment or buying a house
2. Pursuing my writing with deeper purpose and focus
3. The possibility of working from home
4. Getting back into the blogging scene

Four Things I Can't Live Without

1. God's love and His promise of salvation

Four Places I've Visited

1. Helsinki and Vaasa, Finland
2. Disneyland
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Mesa Verde, Colorado

Four Pet Peeves

1. The foot jiggle from people who think they have ADHD but don't (just STOP)
2. Being reminded of things I've already done because I remembered to do them
3. Talking instead of working while on your employer's dime
4. Tailgaters with blaring music

Four Things I Wish I Could Do

1. Retire now
2. Lose weight and keep it off
3. Get in the car and drive to wherever strikes my fancy
4. Finish everything in the span of my 33 years that I've started and haven't yet finished

Four Subjects I Studied at School

1. Victorian Literature
2. The British Romantics
3. Composing Poetry
4. Creative Writing

Four Things Near Me Right Now

1. An unopened pack of Luke Skywalker party napkins (why? Because I love them)
2. A pair of Elvis Presley blue suede slippers
3. Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton (a book my sister lent me)
4. 3 different types of hand lotion (I obviously need to commit to just one)

I Tag . . . 

Because it's been awhile since I've been active on here and have no clue how many people are still reading my blog, pretty much anyone who wants to participate can. I'd love it if DKoren and Birdie would, actually, if I'm going to tag someone specific.

Read More

I'm back and Merry Christmas!

My precious Bucky Boy enjoying his Christmas tree this year.

I look back over 2017 and a part of me thinks, “Wow, this year sucked.” There was a system transition at work that has yet to be completed even though we began in January 2017. Talk about wearing on the mind and soul.  I began battling a mild form of depression and started taking meds to combat it. This year has truly been a flux of up and down and back and forth; emotions whirling and friendships rising and ebbing a bit depending on my ability to interact.

But there’s another part of me, a somewhat larger part, that is now able to see quite a few of the blessings that have flowed my way in 2017. With the Lord’s help, I’ve finally overcome something I’ve struggled with for years. That’s the epitome of awesome, right there. My family traveled to Finland (our first major trip outside the country) and discovered family ties, ancestral land, and just an incredible culture of people that we never imagined experiencing. Finland is amazing and I love it with my whole heart and it connected a lot of the dots about my values and the pacing of my life. Apparently you don’t have to have been born in Finland to live a Scandinavian lifestyle.

Another thing I’ve learned, and I’m sorry it took this long to learn it, is that I should never try to change up important things when I’m in the middle of intense life experiences. Like this blog. I’m much more than just one thing, and while I deeply admire the people who are able to blog about just one thing, that’s not me. I can’t compartmentalize like that. I love classic films, but I’ll go for weeks, even months sometimes, without watching one. I love books, but heaven knows I don’t always want to sit down and review them. There are times when the books I read are too personal, too intimate to my soul, for me to really want to share. I write, I knit, I crochet, and I think, think, think, probably like the majority of people with “intellection” in their top 5 Strengths/Finders.

I tried to put myself in a box, format myself into what I thought others expected of me, but I can’t do that. I have to be free to be who I am. I love the Lord and I need to express that when the urge hits me. If I read a book that inspires me to talk about it, I need that freedom to write about it. It’s the same with movies and television, no matter the era. Travels and writings and craft projects may need to be shared.

All this is to say that after a hectic time of growth and stress and overcoming the loss of loved ones over the last couple of years, my blog is returning to Musings of an Introvert. This is what it should have been all along because that’s when it truly felt right to me and I was engaged with it. I know I’ve lost quite a few readers due to my hiatus and that’s okay. People come and go. But the intensity of my identity needs to be channeled somewhere and I always found blogging to be therapeutic when I did right.

To those of you have still have me in your blog rolls, thanks. I appreciate you and I missed you. And to any new readers that may crop up along the way, cool. We’ll find our way together. Merry Christmas!

Read More

Movie Review: The Greatest Showman (2017)

After spending 2 glorious hours in the theater today watching The Greatest Showman, one thing struck home. Nobody should care whether the movie is a true representation of P.T. Barnum’s real life. That’s not what The Greatest Showman is all about; rather, the movie is the embodiment of believing in impossible dreams and of loving yourself despite what the world says.

My sister cosplays and depending on what she’s wearing and where she is, it’s hilarious watching people try desperately to not look at her. To pretend they don’t see her and that she isn’t dressed in full Victorian garb, bustle, corset, and all. Why? Because she’s different and people do . . . not . . . like . . . different.

P.T. Barnum was different.

And The Greatest Showman represents him as the glorious type of different that ignites the imaginations of the people around him. This movie tells you that it’s okay to be different because you still have the right to happiness, to family, to love, despite anything that anyone may say to the contrary.

So I pretty much spit on the Rotten Tomatoes critics that are complaining about everything from The Greatest Showman not being true to history (Really? You mean Barnum didn’t sing and dance modern show tunes through his life story?), claims about it being formulaic (Hmm, I’m pretty sure Sing got some pretty serious praise and The Greatest Showman is waaaaay superior), and containing some of the worst songs in show tune history (Ummm, you're going to try and teach me about music, now? I know what I like).

Honestly, it really just feels like modern critics have the exact same approach to the exciting and fantastical as the humbug critic in The Greatest Showman. Awww, did the poor wittle babies take offense at such an accurate representation of themselves? To steal a quote from George Gilbert, a favorite radio character of mine from Father Gilbert, modern film critics are "narrow-minded and prejudicial."

You put Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron in starring leads in a larger-than-life musical about chasing dreams and you’ve got a winner. I haven’t fallen this hard for a film since Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them hit theaters, and it’s disappointing to find the same critics who praised the lackluster LaLa Land being so boorish about this fresh, invigorating and just plain fun musical. Just when I really needed a toe-tapping good time, The Greatest Showman popped up to surprise and impress me, so much so that I wished I'd had the time to buy another ticket, turn around, and see it twice in the same day!

Hugh, it’s good to see you back doing musicals again and not bulked up to the nines playing Wolverine. You’re so much better than just an X-man and The Greatest Showman proves it.

And Zac, WOW. I have so totally missed you, dude! Not that you haven’t been in movies because you have, but, come on now, do obnoxious frat boy roles really match you? You’re better than those characters, and I LOVED you as Philip Carlisle. I miss hearing you sing and that number you and Hugh perform together is AMAZING. My advice for what it’s worth and that’s very little is to shelve any future frat boy films and stick to the classier roles. They suit you. Just own that you're a classy gent and run with it.

Read More

Book Review: Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions by Amy Stewart (Kopp Sisters #3, 2017)

Original Summary

Deputy sheriff Constance Kopp is outraged to see young women brought into the Hackensack jail over dubious charges of waywardness, incorrigibility, and moral depravity. The strong-willed, patriotic Edna Heustis, who left home to work in a munitions factory, certainly doesn’t belong behind bars. And sixteen-year-old runaway Minnie Davis, with few prospects and fewer friends, shouldn’t be publicly shamed and packed off to a state-run reformatory. But such were the laws—and morals—of 1916.

Constance uses her authority as deputy sheriff, and occasionally exceeds it, to investigate and defend these women when no one else will. But it's her sister Fleurette who puts Constance's beliefs to the test and forces her to reckon with her own ideas of how a young woman should and shouldn't behave.

Against the backdrop of World War I, and drawn once again from the true story of the Kopp sisters, Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions is a spirited, page-turning story that will delight fans of historical fiction and lighthearted detective fiction alike.

My Thoughts

Where do I start? I must have been too excited, too hopeful, so when Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions let me down, it really let me down. I loved Girl Waits with Gun and Lady Cop Makes Trouble, but this one? It just fell . . . flat. Horribly, boringly flat. It took me roughly 2 weeks to read this cover to cover, when the others took me 3 days, at the most.

Breaking down the problems: too many vignettes of those girls who have given "midnight confessions" to Constance, no genuine mystery for Constance to be involved in other than trying to keep immoral girls out of being sent to prison (which I get, but still, this is a bit of a historical mystery series so more please), and finally the political figures were too stereotypical of the parties in question according to how the opposite party views them. For example, Constance and Sheriff Heath are democrats so they're all for social reform and the Republican figures are characterized as heartless wolves who want anyone with a "social disease" behind bars. No bias at all, there.

It probably didn't help that I was about ready to wring Norma Kopp's neck. She's been annoying in each book with her staid ways. She's an ISTJ gone horribly wrong because no one ever bothered to try and stand up to her so now she rules her family with an iron hand "for their own good." And Constance hasn't got the guts to stand up to her sister in any sort of scenario that matters. For a lady cop, she's pathetic when it comes to wrenching back some of the power her sister is hoarding.

And as for Fleurette, run, girl, run. Norma will lock you up in your room and throw away the key if you stay any longer. And Constance stands up for you only so far. Of the 3 sisters, I like Fleurette the most. She stands a chance of perhaps living a normal life if she's able to make a go of it. I think owning a dress shop would suit her perfectly, give her respectability, and a lovely income. So that's my vote and prayer for Fleurette for the next book in the series. Not that she would be an actress, but that she would fulfill one of her incredible talents as a seamstress.

Then you have the vignettes. Minnie drove me crazy because she's a bit narcissistic and is willing to do anything to obtain pretty things and a nice lifestyle. I didn't mind Edna because she at least had a purpose for wanting to be on her own, and pretty noble one, wanting to serve her country during a time of war. I just felt that there were too many points of view just thrown at the reader. While I agree that locking wayward girls away until they're a certain age is ridiculous; I also didn't care for being thwacked upside the head by the idea that nobody should be held accountable for their behavior.

So, while I didn't hate Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions, too much of it didn't work. It's the only one in the series that has disappointed me so far. I'm hoping the next in the series (if they continue), will have an actual plot for me to follow and won't just spend the entire book wandering in circles. Give me a murderer or a thief, please!

Read More

Mini Book Review: A Thing of Beauty by Lisa Samson (2015)

Former child star Fiona Hume deserted the movie biz a decade ago--right after she left rehab. She landed in Baltimore, bought a dilapidated old mansion downtown, and hatched dreams of restoring it into a masterpiece, complete with a studio for herself. She would disappear from public view and live an artist’s life.

That was the plan.

My Thoughts

This is one of those books that I gulped down so fast that now I can almost remember nothing about it. I hate it when I do that. I do know that I loved reading it because it felt like it had a depth to the writing and story that I don't find that often.

But now I feel guilty that I can remember so very little, sort of like Lucy in Narnia when she read the story in the book of spells on that one island and then, once she had finished, couldn't re-read it because the book wouldn't let her, and then she could only remember vague images and snatches of the story. Just know that I loved it!

Read More

Book Review: Fairer Than Morning by Rosslyn Elliott (Saddler's Legacy #1)

Fairer than Morning

Author: Rosslyn Elliott

Series: Saddler's Legacy

Genre: Christian Historic

Year: 2011

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Goodreads

Official Synopsis 

On a small farm in 19th-century Ohio, young Ann Miller is pursued by the gallant Eli Bowen, son of a prominent family. Eli is the suitor of Ann's dreams. Like her, he enjoys poetry and beautiful things and soon, he will move to the city to become a doctor.

Ann travels to Pittsburgh, accompanying her father on business. There she meets Will Hanby, a saddle-maker's apprentice. Will has spent years eking out an existence under a cruel master and his spirit is nearly broken. But Ann's compassion lights a long-dark part of his soul. Through his encounters with Ann's father, a master saddler, Will discovers new hope and courage in the midst of tremendous adversity.

When the Millers must return to Ohio and their ministry there, Will resolves to find them, at any cost. If Will can make it back to Ann, will she be waiting?

Go to my Historic Fiction page to find all my Christian historic fiction reviews!

Rosslyn Elliott's name first crossed my radar while I was working at the library and in charge of organizing the Christian fiction section. I remember being impressed with the quality of her cover design (I was a bit of a sap over pretty covers at that point). I wanted to read her work, but made the mistake of picking up Sweeter than Birdsong first. I'm not sure how I missed that it was the 2nd in a series, but somehow I did, and it just did not hold my attention.

God works miracles, no matter how small. As my family prepped for our latest family vacation, I hopped out my local library's collection of ebooks and checked out at least a dozen for the trip; determined to give myself a decent selection because I never know what will appeal to me when. Fairer Than Morning happened to be one of my choices and on the flight back home from one of the longest layovers of my life, I decided to start reading it.

Life has intervened a time or two which is why it's taken me a good couple of weeks to finish it, but one thing I do know is that Rosslyn Elliott impressed me. I didn't realize until the afterword that her book was based off the real lives of William Hanby and Ann Miller, but that little tidbit of information only made me love their story all the more.

Fairer Than Morning is beautiful. Not quite perfect in execution, or at least what I consider perfection, but still quite beautiful. And even though I've included the summary, know that the story is much deeper than the summary implies. I loved how faith really was a natural part of the character's lives. Preaching wasn't a part of the story, the Lord just wove His way in and out of the tale. That's my favorite element of faith-filled storytelling. It should feel natural, and Rosslyn Elliott captured that authentic feeling for me.

Will and Ann were both likable and yet flawed in ways that I can relate to. I loved Will. Watching him grow from a teenager to a young adult, overcoming the hardships of being apprenticed to a brute, and discovering the Lord was amazing. I also appreciated his struggles with lust and vengeance. Both of those are very human feelings, very tied to our fleshly desires. Will wasn't perfect, just like Ann wasn't perfect. She had her fair share of petty moments, of weakness, of blindness towards beauty and intellect. But she also came to a profound understanding of who she wanted to be as a woman and what type of man she would be suited to marry. And it turned out that neither of the romantic heroes she had been considering were actually suited to the steady life of service her heart desired. It's not that I disliked Eli or Allan. But neither of them were of a nature to give back, to love others, and to protect the weak. Will's nature developed into a man who cannot simply stand by and watch a wrong being done without standing against it. Ann loved that in him and so do I.

Like I said, there were a few elements that didn't quite work for me. A few sappy, soap-operaesque moments that cropped up from time to time. But the real meat of the story, the progression in faith and knowledge of God and the maturing of a young man to adulthood, all of those elements stood strong and firm. So, bravo, Rosslyn, for your authentic story. I'm not sure when I'll get to the 2nd book in the series, but it is now on my list to be read.

Read More